Insomnia is a real bummer. As a true insomniac, I understand the frustration of lying awake in bed when you know you should be sleeping and worrying about how tired you will be during the next day.

My solution? Don’t lay around. Do something with yourself. Below is my short and not even remotely comprehensive list of the grand things I accomplish while unable to sleep.

Things to do when insomnia doesn’t care how exhausted you are at 3 a.m.:

Laundry. Especially the weird stuff.

You know those rags you use to wash your car? Or the pillowcases and sheets in the guest bedroom that no one has ever slept in? Well they need to be washed too, right? Right. After two or three nights of insomnia all the normal laundry is probably done, so capitalize on this opportunity to get everything squeaky and fluffy in case great Aunt Irma decides to stop over for a visit.

Read scary zombie books or watch scary zombie movies

Remember that moment when you decided, “no, I won’t read this book/watch this tv show right before bed because I want to be able to sleep tonight?” This is your subconscious minds way of playing a cruel joke on you. Punish it by subjecting yourself to the scariest most face eating shit you can find. It’s not like you’re going to fall back to sleep anyway.

Scrub the tile floors

You’re always too exhausted to do it after you’ve cleaned the whole house, so it goes a few weeks (or ok, months) between good thorough down on your hands and knees with the bucket of bleach water scrubbing. Since you have more energy at 3 a.m. than you ever dreamed possible, might as well get it out of the way!

Paint your nails, and toenails… and heck, the dog/cats nails while you’re at it

Waiting for polish to dry is a pain the ass during busy day to day life. But hey, it’s 3 a.m.! Outside of your 24 hour Wal-Mart there is literally no other place on earth that you even could be, much less anywhere than you would need to be. And really, Wal-Mart at 3 a.m. is even scarier than during the day. Don’t do it. Trust me.

Watch porn. And do whatever it is you do while watching porn

I’m not proud. When all else fails, an orgasm is a kind of sure fire way to get you relaxed enough that there might be hope that you will fall back to sleep. If that doesn’t work, well, at least you were productive.